Outgoing board chairman says Amtrak back on track

November 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — Amtrak has restored its credibility and is not the financial basket case it was five years ago, the national passenger railroad’s outgoing chairman said.

But David Laney, whom President Bush did not nominate for another term on the board, told The Associated Press that there are probably some in the White House who would have preferred to see Amtrak eliminated.

Laney’s five-year term as a member of the board of directors expires at the end of November. At its Nov. 8 meeting, the board chose Donna McLean, a transportation consultant and a board member since July 2006, to replace him as chairman. Laney had served as chairman since 2003.

As a Bush appointee, Laney initially was greeted warily by Amtrak supporters. But the Texas lawyer said his record shows he worked with the company’s interest in mind.

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“I do think we’ve rebuilt and re-established credibility,” Laney said in a telephone interview.

His one regret, he said, was Amtrak’s failure to resolve a protracted labor dispute. Most Amtrak workers have been without a contract since the end of 1999. The National Mediation Board released the parties from mediation earlier this month, setting in motion a series of events that could force a deal or allow workers to strike. Laney predicted a deal would be reached early next year.

Laney joined the board just after a financial crisis that was solved only when the Department of Transportation made an emergency loan of $100 million to the railroad. Laney said he was able to put stricter financial controls in place and pointed to the reduction in the company’s long-term debt from $4 billion in 2002 to less than $3.5 billion.

But Laney said he didn’t know if the administration was pleased with the results.

“They don’t talk to me,” he said. “There’s probably some people over there who think I should have wiped Amtrak off the map, but that wasn’t my job.”

Amtrak’s biggest critics say long-distance passenger rail — particularly trips that take more than a day — is an anachronism and that shorter trips could be run more effectively by the private sector.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said he could not discuss why Laney was not reappointed because it is a personnel matter.

As for Amtrak’s existence, he said: “The administration believes that if properly reformed Amtrak’s intercity passenger rail system can be an important component of our nation’s transportation network, particularly on our most congested intercity corridors.”

McLean said efficiency and “tighter internal management controls” would be key themes for her as chairman. “Any organization that receives any kind of subsidy should strive to be as effecient as possible,” she said Tuesday. “The team at Amtrak is becoming more and more focused on that goal.”

The Heritage Foundation’s Ron Utt said Laney made Amtrak more businesslike but that more transparency was needed and labor costs remained excessive.

Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers, said Laney turned out to be a better chairman than most rail supporters expected.

He said Amtrak supporters were nervous when Laney considered breaking off the busy northeast corridor to be managed separately from the rest of Amtrak. But Capon said Laney allowed the idea “to die gracefully.”

Laney said he looked at the northeast corridor scenarios out of a responsibility to “turn over every rock possible to find an advantage for Amtrak.” But separating the corridor didn’t make sense and it’s doubtful anyone could run it better than Amtrak, he said.

McLean declined to comment on the issue, except to call the northeast corridor “an incredible success story for Amtrak right now.”

Capon called McLean, a former assistant secretary for budget and programs at the Department of Transportation, an “unknown quantity.” Her election comes as the makeup of Amtrak’s board is shifting. Bush nominated three new people to the board last week to replace Laney and others.

In a news release announcing her election, McLean said Laney had improved Amtrak’s business model, accountability and service.

“Amtrak’s relevance in the national transportation mix has never been stronger, with record ridership and revenues being achieved for the last several fiscal years,” she said.

Amtrak President Alex Kummant, hired more than a year ago, has said Amtrak’s future lies frequently traveled, medium-distance routes. He said the company is reevaluating long-distance routes, which are expensive to maintain and tend to carry fewer passengers.

But Amtrak has put off making radical changes, which would likely anger members of Congress.

The railroad has taken heat for failing to restore service east of New Orleans on the Sunset Limited, which until Hurricane Katrina went from Orlando to Los Angeles. Freight service was restored on the line long ago, but Amtrak has maintained the truncated route and kept silent on its future plans

Laney confirmed what most Amtrak watchers have long suspected. “You wont see the Sunset Limited east of New Orleans, and there will be changes west,” he said.

Still, Laney said some long-distance routes have potential. The Chicago-New York service, for example, could be popular if the trains were on time. For that to happen, Amtrak would need to cooperate with CSX Corp., which owns the track, to ease a bottleneck in Indiana, he said.